UNDP

16 August 2010: The UN has launched the Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification, which will run from 2010-2020 and will seek to raise awareness and action to improve the protection and management of the world's drylands.

13 August 2010: The fifth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network was organized around the theme "Enhancing the Implementation of the Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management Framework for Action through a Multi-stakeholder Approach."

10 August 2010: In its latest media release, the UN-REDD Programme highlights several recent governance-related activities, describing the Programme's engagement of partners on governance issues and REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks) at conferences around the world.

August 2010: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI), a global UN-led programme that supports country-led efforts to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national development planning, has released its 2009 Annual Progress Report.

To promote actions that will protect the world's drylands from further deterioration and degradation into deserts, the United Nations will launch the Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification on 16 August 2010. The Decade will be launched during the opening of the 2nd International Conference on Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-arid Regions. The Decade of events are spearheaded by the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in collaboration with the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the UN Secretariat in New York, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other relevant UN bodies.

3 August 2010: UN Development Programme (UNDP) Associate Administrator Rebeca Gryspan and Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño have signed an agreement establishing a trust fund to scale up the protection of the Yasuní National Park, part of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

28 July 2010: The UN-REDD Programme has released its July Newsletter, which outlines recent activities on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+). Highlighted is a recent meeting of the Interim REDD+ Partnership, which was established in May at the Oslo Climate and Forest conference.

26 July 2010: The “Weekly” Newsletter of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) reports on an international workshop on renewable energy prospects in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was held in Minsk, Belarus, on 22-23 July 2010.